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Dawn Berlitz
Dawn Berlitz is a once-popular Coordinator, and a now not-particularly-popular Etsy merchant, who hails from the Sinnoh Region. The Bastard Princess: The Girl Who Wished For Victory As a young girl, Dawn grew up in the care of her mother, Johanna; her father was never in the picture, although Johanna was always upfront with her daughter, once she was old enough to start asking questions, about her having been the product of "some youthful dalliance" the elder Berlitz had gotten up to in the wake of her crowning as a Sinnoh Top Coordinator. With no known siblings, no father, and an extended family that had severed all ties ("First they wanted my money - they never got a penny out of me, I'm proud to say - but then, when I had you while young and single...well, that was the last straw for them. Good riddance to bad rubbish, Dawn, and not anything you should worry about,"), Dawn's only real influence while growing up was naturally Johanna, and she thus decided, very early on, that she wanted nothing more than to be a Top Coordinator, just like her mother. The shadow cast by Johanna's Ribbons and trophies, which were always on proud display in the house, was a large one, but young Dawn never felt daunted by this looming legacy, merely determined. She would often sit in on the classes her mother ran out of their house for aspiring Coordinators, absorbing every scrap of knowledge that she could like an eager sponge, knowing it would all become useful later, once she was old enough to set out herself. Was she not'' the daughter of one of the most well-known Coordinators in all of Sinnoh? Had she not listened to dozens of lessons? Did her mother not believe in her? She couldn't ''not succeed, once the day to set off finally arrived. She knew ''she'd succeed and be a Top Coordinator! And thus it was that the ten-year-old girl who left home one April morning (which are when License registrations open up for the year) ventured forth into the world with a brand-new piplup and a big head, brimming with the overconfidence that being a celebrity's child could so often bring with it. With her, she carried Johanna's first Contest Ribbon, entrusted to her both as a good-luck charm, and also as a symbol of her mother's support made manifest. Dawn and Johanna each were the only thing the other had, up to that point in time, but she didn't feel burdened by that weight at first. And why should she be, when she was so sure that the Journey that laid before her would be so simple? She had more advantage than any other first-year Cooridinator - they wouldn't know what had hit them! Reality, of course, cared not for the dreams of a naive child, and victories would not come as easily to her as she had once believed that they would. And nor, ultimately, would the world of Coordinators prove to be one that Dawn wished to belong to, after all... '''High Five! Determination, Ups and Downs, and the Power of a Best Friend' While Dawn travelled alone during her earliest days in Sinnoh, it wasn't long before a chance encounter with an injured pikachu, which had stumbled out of the undergrowth right in front of her, eventually led her to meet said pokémon's human companion, from whom he'd become seperated - an older, experienced League Circuit Trainer named Ash, who'd previously Journeyed through Hoenn, Johto and his own home Region of Kanto, accumulating Badges and participating in Conferences all along the way. At first, Dawn's reasons for wanting to accompany him, rather than continue on alone, were borne mostly of pragmatism - a guy like him had already accomplished a great deal, and he could therefore provide useful expertise when it came to the realities of life on the road, which even by that early point, were proving to be less ideal in the actual living of them than they had ever seemed in Johanna's romantised stories. The bugs, the weather, the wild pokémon attacks, the homesickness, the difficulties with one's pokémon, who didn't always want to listen to you, the realities of roughing it in the wilderness and feeding oneself when miles from the nearest Pokémon Center...exciting, yes, but easy? No. Someone like Ash - and his own older travelling companion, a young man named Brock who'd once been a Gym Leader - could provide unique insight, and help make her own Journey all the easier. Dawn's rude awakening came with her first Contest, where she lost in the quarterfinals to a girl named Zoey, who would go on to be both a supportive friend to Dawn, and a challenging rival, throughout the course of the next few years (and, while Dawn still won't admit to such to this very day, she sooort-of miiiight-have had, and still have, a bit of a crush on the accomplished Coordinator). This and other defeats would prove to be daunting blows to her confidence, bringing her to tears and evoking spells of depression where things would feel impossible, as much as she'd try to pretend otherwise. Could ''she live up to everything Johanna wished of her, after all? Could she live up to everything she wished of ''herself? How she found her way through, and grew into the optimistic, spirited girl who charmed television watchers throughout her Coordinator career ("Here she is, everyone; Dawn the Undaunted!"), and who never allowed her failures to stymie her for too long, was down to several factors, not the least of which was her own strength of character and determination to pull through. But Johanna's gentle encouragement that she learn to stand on her own two feet and look to the bonds she'd chosen to form for strength, rather than those forged solely by family ties (something that would take on a more melancholy tinge as Dawn matured and could look at her mother's choices from an adult perspective, but was accepted at face value as a child), alongside a growing closeness to Ash that had quickly moved away from mere convenience into a rich and genuine friendship, helped more than anything else in her wish to chase her passion, especially the latter. Brock was an adult and, while she grew to value him as a sensible and caring big brother during their time together, his age gap and...adult-ness made him less approchable than Ash had been; by contrast, he was only four years older than her, whereas Brock was eight years her senior. Ash had been the big brother who wasn't quite ''so big, who always seemed to know when things were wrong, and who was always there for her, unflagging in his support of her, and his ''belief in her - even during those times where she found it difficult to believe in herself. Over the course of their travels together, Ash became her best friend, and this bond was embodied in the ritual they'd developed and shared together - an exuberant high five, given whenever either of them had achived a goal - or, sometimes, it was done just because they could. The End of the Beginning While Dawn finished her tour of Sinnoh without, ultimately, winning the Grand Festival and achieving the title of Top Coordinator, it was not this first of several failures of Grand scale that had initinally planted a strange, unsettled seed of doubt in her heart - the first vague hint that would later blossom into the realization, the knowing ''that something in her world was very wrong, started much earlier than that. Travelling through the duel circuits of both Coordinators and League Trainers, the girl was privy, in a way few others often are, to just how ''similar ''these worlds can be, even if they dress themselves up in rather different trappings. Pokémon Moves that would never be legal in an official Battle were considered fair game for Contests, but the moves ''backstage ''- the flow of bettors' money, the ever-present presence of HR represenatives from various corporations mingling amid the Coordinator's Guild, and the visible thumbprints of League culture itself all over the entire system - were cribbed straight from the same sheet. Popular Coordinators were ''personalities, not people, and they were expected to sell and present themselves as such for maximum success, even when offstage. Being ten years old at the time, and a first-year Coordinator who was only just starting to build a fanbase and had not yet reached her peak fame, Dawn would not wholly understand everything that she had witnessed in Sinnoh until later years, and at that time, most of it had not directly affected her; the narrative that was already beginning to be constructed about her genuine bright and passionate spirit was done by television editors hungry for ratings, and not yet by influencers in her real life. But she had been confused - and quite hurt - when Contest attendants informed her, once she reached a point where she was starting to draw the beginnings of attention to herself, that (finish later bunny gotta woooork :weary: ) And the Beginning of the End The Velveteen Buneary: The Girl Who Wished For Real Real doesn't happen all at once. You '''become'. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. By the time you are Real, you are very shabby. But once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to those who don't understand.'' - Margery Williams Recovery and Healing: The Girl Who Wished For Meaning Category:Characters Category:Humans Category:Natives